World Security Council

The World Security Council was a shadowy global organization consisting of a small group of powerful politicians. The circumstances surrounding the Council's establishment are unclear, including how they came to oversee the operations of the international peacekeeping organization S.H.I.E.L.D., which predates the Council by several decades. The Council effectively collapsed in 2014 when Secretary Alexander Pierce killed nearly all of the other Councilmembers, dying himself shortly after.

History

Chitauri invasion and Hydra conspiracy

By 2012, the Council held jurisdiction over S.H.I.E.L.D., frequently clashing with the organization's director, Nick Fury. The Council initially authorized the Avenger Initiative, but attempted to shut it down in favor of researching the Tesseract. In 2012, after Loki absconded with the Tesseract, the Council reluctantly allowed Fury to proceed with the initiative. Loki used the Tesseract to attack New York City with an army of invading Chitauri while the newly formed Avengers attempted to fight them off. The Council believed the battle to be a lost cause, and authorized a nuclear strike on New York as a means of isolating the Chitauri threat. Iron Man boldly took control of the bomb in question, carrying it through the Chitauri invasion portal and using it to destroy their mothership, deactivating the forces on the ground.

After the Chitauri invasion, the Council and S.H.I.E.L.D. developed Project Insight, supposedly as a means of better protecting the world from similarly colossal threats. In truth, Project Insight was orchestrated by Hydra, which had existed covertly within S.H.I.E.L.D. for decades—even Alexander Pierce, the Secretary of the Council, was loyal to Hydra. Pierce, on the surface, represented S.H.I.E.L.D. to the Council and personally oversaw most S.H.I.E.L.D. operations. Insight in fact was a plot by Hydra to utilize an algorithm developed by Arnim Zola to neutralize all threats to Hydra's existence, whether current or potential. Nick Fury began to suspect that there was an ulterior motive behind the project, so Pierce ordered his assassination at the hands of the Hydra agent known as the Winter Soldier.

Pierce invited the Council to the Triskelion for the official launching of Project Insight, outfitting each of them with a security badge. But it was here that Hydra's plot broke down: Captain America, Black Widow, and Nick Fury (who had survived his assassination attempt) had countered Hydra's efforts by devising a plan to take down Project Insight along with Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D. once and for all. Black Widow disguised as Councilwoman Hawley and took Pierce captive inside the Triskelion, though Pierce managed to kill all of the rest of the Council, using their booby-trapped badges to burrow into their chest. Fury killed Pierce, and Widow went on to release all classified S.H.I.E.L.D. files to effectively bring an end to both Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D. The World Security Council, with just one member remaining, effectively ceased operations for some time afterward.

Members

The following comprises the known Council members at the time of the Triskelion incident. Outside of Pierce, given names of Councilmembers are not known. Outside of Pierce and Hawley, available biographical information for Councilmembers does not exist beyond what is in this article.

• Alexander Pierce (Secretary)
• Hawley
• Yen
• Singh
• Rockwell